anapestic

Anapestic is a term in prosody describing a metrical foot used in poetry. An anapest consists of three syllables with two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable: u u /. When feet are arranged in lines, the overall meter is described as anapestic, such as anapestic trimeter, tetrameter, or dimeter.

In English verse, anapestic meter often produces a brisk, galloping rhythm and is commonly found in light or comic poetry, ballads, and many nursery rhymes. It is especially associated with playful, narrative, or mock-heroic tones. A line may be scanned as a sequence of anapests, though poets frequently substitute other feet for variety.

Familiar examples include limericks, whose longer lines typically employ three anapestic feet and a final rhyme, while the shorter lines use two. The opening lines of many traditional nursery rhymes and some Christmas verse are described as anapestic. A well-known instance is the opening of "'Twas the night before Christmas," often cited as anapestic tetrameter, with four anapests per line that drive the rapid cadence.

Variations and substitutions are common in practice. Poets may insert a different foot at the start of a line for emphasis, or end with an extra unstressed syllable (a feminine ending), producing slight deviations from strict anapestic regularity. Anapestic meter contrasts with other meters such as iambic, trochaic, or dactylic, which use different patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables.